B2B Marketing White Paper, How to Plan the Content?

For 2B companies, the importance of content marketing is becoming more and more prominent:

CMI found that in North America, 88% of 2B marketers believe that content marketing is an important part of marketing, 66% are able to respond proactively when content marketing strategies change, and 52% of company leaders are able to provide sufficient time for content production.

In China, although Microsoft, Cisco, SAP, and UFIDA in the 2B field have officially started content marketing, 2B companies do not have a relatively unified understanding of content marketing, and their investment level is far less than that in North America.

Excluding labor costs, in North America, the average budget of B2B companies on content marketing is about 29%, and 15% of companies spend more than 50% of their B2B budget on content marketing.

The huge investment in content marketing in North America actually makes many Chinese B2B marketers astonished (Editor's note: One of the reasons is that the widespread adoption of marketing automation in North America has made it possible to track and measure the sales leads generated by content marketing. We will gradually talk about this in the later series on content marketing). However, with the rise of Chinese self-media , we can clearly see that B2B companies have improved their budget structure, such as increasing the budget for content creation and production, increasing the budget for platform construction of their own channels , and reducing the cost of external operations or channel promotion .

In its 2017 B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America report, CMI found that less than 37% of technology and enterprise marketers have a documented content strategy. 73% use content marketing as part of their business processes without a separate content strategy, and 34% believe that their content strategy has a clear impact on achieving marketing goals.

However, for those marketers who are able to have a clear strategy, their marketing strategies are more effective in all aspects and face fewer challenges. In a 2014 report, CMI found that 62% of B2B technology marketers with a content strategy believed their organization was effective at content marketing, but only 14% of those without a clear strategy felt the same way. Additionally, among B2B marketers with a clear content strategy, only 32% are concerned about not being able to measure the effectiveness of their content.

Jerod Morris of Copyblogger emphasizes three magic words when it comes to content marketing strategy: write, download, and create. A clear content strategy can better serve marketing. So how to formulate a marketing strategy?

Zhiqu believes that a complete content strategy includes the following six parts:

Content planning: Combine the content type on the X-axis with the user type on the Y-axis and the user journey on the Z-axis to create a planning matrix.

Content team building: Build your own team or hire external help, and collaborate with the entire enterprise.

Content production: Redefine high-quality content and apply the barbell strategy in the production process.

Content dissemination: Omni-channel coordination and channel analysis, and formulation of clear content push time plan.

Let content generate sales opportunities: How to turn traffic into sales leads, and how to turn sales leads into money?

Content measurement and optimization: content value strategy indicators and optimization strategies.

This article is the preliminary planning article of the content marketing series. In the next few weeks, Zhiqu will also launch content team building, content production, content dissemination, allowing content to generate sales opportunities, content measurement and optimization.

Chapter 1 Content Marketing Strategy | Three Dimensions of Content Planning

The purpose of content marketing is to draw potential customers into the purchasing journey through content and ultimately make them purchase. At the very beginning of content marketing, ensure the consistency of goals and strategies through content planning.

On the one hand, attract potential customers through attractive content.

On the other hand, content marketing does not sell products directly, but accelerates sales by introducing customers to the next step of the sales funnel through content.

To achieve the above two points, when planning content, you need to create a matrix that combines the content type on the X-axis with the user type on the Y-axis and the user purchase journey on the Z-axis. That is, each piece of content should have a goal to attract potential customers to a certain buying stage and move them to the next buying stage.

Plan your content by focusing on the following questions:

What kind of users are you facing at this stage?

What are the users’ problems and concerns at this stage?

What questions need to be answered at this stage?

What topics and categories could answer these questions?

What are some example titles for this topic?

This requires coordination of user type, user life cycle , and content type.

Part 1: User Type Segmentation

Choosing the right customer segment can improve profitability, expand market size, and attract target customers.

1. Types of corporate customers

Few companies target only one type of customer; generally they will have several different customer types.

There are many ways to classify customers, which can be generally divided into two parts: existing customers and incremental customers. Different strategies require different preparations. Who is the target group? What issues do they care about? What answer can you provide? What services can you provide?

Incremental customers: Offensive marketing, to continuously acquire new customers. Use content marketing as an opening to continuously provide new leads. Through content marketing, you can accelerate leads, complete lead cultivation, and achieve customer growth.

Existing customers: Defensive marketing, try to keep old customers. The cost of retaining old customers is much lower than that of acquiring new customers, generally saving 4 to 6 times (Wells, 1993). Content marketing for existing customers needs to be incorporated into the CRM system and developed around the entire user life cycle.

Content marketing work must reflect the core strategy of the company and have clear levels of differentiation. Although it is not required that every piece of content must target a certain type of customer, there should be a focus.

2. Personas

Persona, short for user model, is a fictional user used to represent a user group. A persona can be more representative than any real individual. The information of a persona representing a typical user includes gender, age, income, region, emotion, all browsed URLs, content and keywords contained in these URLs, etc.

Content cannot be suitable for everyone. Through user role models, we can reduce subjective assumptions, understand what users really need, and know how to better serve different types of users.

On the one hand, content is produced for specific users to arouse resonance and empathy.

On the other hand, it helps the team establish appropriate expectations and goals to create an accurate shared version together.

Third, get everyone to prioritize questions about target users and features. Make sure it’s done right from the start, improve efficiency, and ensure accuracy in content planning.

On the 2C side, the user role model can solve the following two problems:

User portrait: Solve the WHAT problem, who is the content written for?

User portrait : Solve the WHY problem, why do users read?

3. Key points to note when choosing a customer

First, cognitive ability

Readers are diverse, and marketing content should be diverse as well. Readers can only remember 20% of what they read, but can remember 80% of what they see and do. The content setting should pay attention to interactivity and participation.

Second, share

The goal of content is not only to reach users, but also to inspire users to share. The New York Times Customer Insights Group’s white paper “The Psychology of Sharing” states that the main reasons for sharing are as follows:

Value: Bring valuable and educational content to others

Identity: Positioning oneself to others

Network: Expand and cultivate our interpersonal relationships

Involvement: Self-actualization, personal value, and involvement in the world

Couses: Spread content about causes and brands

Third, persuasiveness

Consistency: The universal currency of marketing content is not money, but trust. Stay in line with the general trend and maintain content coherence.

Scarcity: Use content to promote users to the next stage, but if you advance too quickly, you may lose followers. When formulating content strategies, pay attention to the frequency and frequency of advancement.

Part 2: The User Purchase Journey

The user purchase journey is the journey in which users continue to learn about the product before purchasing it, and then decide to buy or churn. The buyer’s journey is not a predictable timeline, but rather occurs in a series of interconnected moments that are different for every customer.

Compared with the traditional sales process, today's B2B purchase decision-making process has changed. More and more buyers are accustomed to collecting a lot of information by themselves, and even place orders directly on the website without contacting sales staff.

Roland Berger's report "The Digital Future of B2B Sales" points out that before the first contact with a salesperson, consumers will complete nearly 57% of the entire purchasing process alone, 90% of B2B buyers will search for keywords online, and 70% of B2B buyers will watch related video content online.

Entering the first 57% of the purchase process means that marketers need to take more responsibility for lead conversion and sales closing, so accurately evaluating marketing performance at each stage of the buyer's life cycle is critical and directly related to corporate profits.

Changes in the buyer’s journey have made the work of marketing and sales teams inseparable in the process from lead to sale.

1. What corresponding content should be provided for different buyer journeys?

The “buyer’s journey” is the life course of the user’s relationship with the brand and product. For B2B buyers, on the surface they are searching for products, but in reality they are searching and evaluating the supply capabilities and quality risks of the product suppliers. What B2B buyers care most about is not where the cheapest products are, but rather the risk issue, that is, how to screen out suppliers with the lowest risks and how to avoid making wrong decisions.

The buyer's journey has certain differences in attributes across different industries. Currently, there are two main models: the APA model proposed by MarketProfs and the AI ​​SAS model proposed by Dentsu.

APA Model: Awareness, Purchase, Advocate

The awareness stage is for potential buyers who need more detailed information about your product.

The purchase stage is the process of building trust in the brand, which is determined by whether they are happy or comfortable purchasing the product;

Support: At this time, consumers are quite familiar with your products, and you need to provide them with more creative information.

AISAS model: Attention, Interest, Search, Action, Share

The Attention stage focuses on dissemination and arrival. No matter what, you have to let the audience know you.

In the Interest stage, grasp the pain points of the target group and win with content;

In the Search stage, you need to build a good foundation for brand display so that they can fully understand you.

In the Action phase, reduce the action cost of potential customers as much as possible to avoid unnecessary loss;

The Share stage runs through the entire Customer Journey, and the audience may share at any stage.

Generally speaking, the user life cycle of B2B enterprises can be divided into three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Preference.

After the purchase, a new purchasing cycle begins, namely the "consideration" and "preference" stages. So here it is simply divided into three stages.

Stage 1: Cognitive Stage

In the initial awareness phase, at the beginning of the sales and marketing cycle. Users are aware of your product or service, but are not yet ready to buy.

The strategy of content marketing should be to create demand, build brand and solution awareness among users, and establish a continuous interactive relationship with users, maximize the collection of user needs and interests, and push corresponding solutions in a personalized manner.

Example content offers: eBooks, blog posts, research data, interesting videos, event information, infographics.

Specific implementation:

Create demand: Publish brand content on industry websites or WeChat service accounts , and then forward it to relevant WeChat groups .

Search Engine Optimization : Get your company listed on the first page of Baidu.

Search landing page : The search destination page is directly introduced to the case page, allowing customers to see the value.

Phase 2: Consideration

When users move from the awareness stage to the consideration stage, it means that they have developed a certain interest in the brand but have not yet entered the preference stage.

During this period, the content marketing strategy should be to output products or industry solutions to the other party and convey a sense of trust. It is necessary to continuously provide educational content and convey the characteristics of your solution.

Sample content provided: Buying guide, RFP template, ROI calculator, analyst report.

Specific implementation:

Evaluation: third-party evaluation or third-party report

Brand trust: Add humanized information, such as company culture, reliable employees, kind bosses, happy customers, and awesome investors .

Product details: Nice product descriptions, price lists, and customer reviews, then introduce them to them over the phone or in person.

Stage 3: Preference Stage

This buying stage occurs at the bottom of the sales funnel and indicates that a prospect is close to becoming a customer.

Once entering the preference stage, you need to let customers have a deeper understanding of the product, let them know what kind of growth and benefits they can achieve through your products and services, let customers have a deep understanding of the product, will use it before buying, and know the benefits of using it.

You can try to share the success stories of typical customers in the same industry with the other party to promote further purchasing decisions. At the same time, the incentives are pointed out very specifically in order to support the buyer during the purchasing process.

Example content provided: Pricing, Demos, Third-party Reviews, Customer Case Studies

Specific implementation:

Continuous follow-up of products: After obtaining customer needs, we will continue to deliver product information that is more suitable for customers to customers

Trial: If it is software, give customers a trial account; if it is hardware, give customers samples or on-site visits to experience

Online Demonstration: Let customers participate in online demonstration meetings, provide instructions for using the product, and let typical customers share their successful experiences.

2. Analysis indicators of content effectiveness in the user purchase journey

On this basis, how should we choose and set specific analysis indicators? The Forrester report continues to point the way forward for B2B marketers:

quantity. How many leads and opportunities exist in each customer lifecycle stage? How many new ones are there? These metrics can tell marketers which marketing activities generate the most new leads and opportunities.

speed. How long does it take on average for a lead to convert into a sale? How much time does it take to enter each next stage in the life cycle? By analyzing conversion rates, marketers can identify points that may hinder the downward movement of the funnel and continuously optimize the entire process.

value. From the perspective of increasing revenue, finding high-value customers is much more cost-effective than increasing the number of potential customers. Therefore, it is also important to measure the lifetime value of sales opportunities or customers at each stage, which can also allow the marketing team to focus more on high-value customer groups in the future.

Validity. What is the conversion rate of each stage to the next stage? Which types and sources of leads have a higher conversion rate ?

efficacy. The efficiency here refers to the return on capital investment. How much does it cost to obtain each qualified lead, sales opportunity, and closed customer? This type of assessment can tell marketers which marketing activities and strategies have the highest ROI and can be continuously optimized.

Part 3: Content Types

According to Regalix's "State-of-B2B-Content-Marketing-2016", the contribution rate to marketing targets in 2015 and the expected rate in 2016 are as follows:

In addition to blog content, online meetings have the most stable contribution to marketing goals, which remains stable at 16%-17%. In the 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report, 50% of marketers believe that online meetings can generate sales leads, and 37% believe that they can generate revenue for the company.

The highest growth rates were in video (7%) and social media (4%). This trend is also evident in China. As a social media platform, WeChat is thriving and has also begun to enter the 2B market. Tencent Research Institute's "WeChat Economic and Social Impact Research" shows that WeChat for Business has reconstructed a new model of work scenarios, connecting the physical and virtual relationships within and outside the enterprise. As of the end of 2016, the number of WeChat for Business users reached 31 million.

1. Blog content: the overall content assets of WeChat + official website

Blogs are a great platform for displaying many different types of content, such as text, video, infographics, etc. Blogs are the most stable and reliable type of content. In China, the use of blogs has its own particularities:

Blogs can complement your company's website by sharing ideas in a way that helps customers. It should be noted that company website blogs should be distinguished from news pages to ensure that they are an expression of opinions rather than a public relations propaganda method.

If compared with foreign blogs, WeChat has the same function. WeChat service accounts can be used as a richer content portal for mobile websites, allowing customers to obtain multi-dimensional content services including articles, online conferences, case studies, white papers, blog content, online videos, social content, demos, etc. WeChat service accounts essentially have stronger interactive properties and shorter operation paths than mobile official websites. Unilever's B2B catering planning department has driven annual related sales of 10 digits through WeChat service accounts as a localized cross-border innovation in China.

For the overall content asset construction of WeChat service accounts and official websites, Zhiqu suggests that there should be a unified data aggregation of the two channels. This is the role of the SCRM background, which unifies multi-channel data through SCRM.

2. In-depth written content: white papers, e-books, and books

In-depth content is more narrative than a press release and is often more structured than a blog post, satisfying people’s need for deeper content.

Within a month, if you write a series of content from different angles around one point of view (such as publishing articles on a subscription account ), you can get a high-value white paper.

When investing in in-depth content, the main considerations are as follows:

Create a position of authority and demonstrate strong problem-solving capabilities within your field.

An invaluable sales tool , people will share this information and call it an experience of competence.

It can be repurposed and used multiple times, and can provide material for blogs, videos, etc.

Can attract more customers to the business.

3. Multimedia content: audio, video

The average reader only reads 28% of the latest article. The content can be conveyed more clearly and accurately through audio and video.

4. Live broadcast

If you can’t adequately get your point across in text and don’t have the resources to host an event to meet with potential clients in person, online conferences are an easy way to connect with your audience and generate leads.

50% of marketers believe that online meetings can generate sales leads, and 37% believe that they can generate revenue for the company. (Source: 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report) For more information about online meetings, please click on "How to attract customers through live streaming without relying on internet celebrities?" ”, check out Zhiqu’s views on online live streaming.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing can help B2B marketers retain readers and deliver content directly to the inboxes of those who are interested in your brand.

The content of the email may include:

Monthly Newsletter

Product or service updates

Views and Comments

Special offers or discounts

Reuse of content